On Saturdays, the bus from Cádiz only takes you as far as El Bosque on the edge of the Sierra de Grazalema Natural Park. I was aiming for the town of Grazalema, one of the famous White Villages of Andalusia, though not among the most famous, probably because it doesn’t have an old castle.

I got some maps in the park’s visitor center in El Bosque then walked up to the bus station where I called my hotel in Grazalema and arranged for them to send a driver. There was some kind of road bike race going on so I sat on a wall, ate a snack, and watched them.

More time passed than I expected, and eventually a man came running around the side of the bus stop waving a cell phone. The driver had called a nearby restaurant and asked this guy to track me down. The bike race had closed the main road between El Bosque and Grazalema so he had to take a one hour detour.

I had a good conversation in Spanish the guy from the hotel on the way to Grazalema. I was happy to put my Spanish skills to use after a week at the language school in Cádiz. It went well because he spoke clearly and simply, somehow seeming to know which Spanish words I understood. (Later, in Nepal, I would develop my own speak-clearly-for-non-native-speakers habit. One Nepali asked if I were a professor because of this.)

The hotel guy looked to be in his mid to late 40s. He asked me a lot about the Indians in the US—the “American Indians” or “Native Americans.” (An instructor at the language school had also wanted to talk about the Indians, so I guess it’s a topic of interest outside the US.) He asked if were true that they’re all drunk and/or running casinos. My Spanish wasn’t good enough to expound upon the regrettable discrepancy between a peoples’ reputation and the reality (especially since the difference between the two is one of my favorite topics), but I confirmed that many are in the casino business.

After settling in at the hotel in Grazalema, I walked up the hill and shot this photo overlooking the town.

My first stop on my round-the-world trip was Norway. I had always wanted to see some fjords and if you’re looking to escape a hot Texas summer you could do worse than Norway. I flew into Oslo, spent a few days there, then headed out to the fjordlands for some sightseeing and an overnight hike to Stavali cabin.Read more

The world famous Flåmsbana (Flåm Railway) makes a couple stops on its trip from Myrdal to Flåm and one of them is at this waterfall, Kjosfossen. (“Foss” is the Norwegian word for “waterfall.”) I don’t think you can actually drive to it, but according to Google Maps, it does have a street address: 5718 Frekhaug, Norway

When the train halts everyone gets out to take pictures of the waterfall. Not me, though, I’m too cool for that. Run out and get the same old photo as everyone else? No thanks! But Norway has a surprise in store.

Elbows on the open window pane, I’m watching the people and the waterfall. Then some music starts up — I spot a woman in red dancing on the waterfall. I wasn’t intending to shoot a lot of video on my trip, but I figured this was a good time to do so—I grab my 20x zoom camera. She disappears, I zoom out to show the scale of the waterfall (exaggerated by the wide angle view, you should know), then she reappears! Zoom back in.

The woman in red darts in and out of view like a shy pixie. To someone like me who knows little of Scandinavia, it all seems very Scandinavian. According to WikiPedia: “The Huldra is a seductive forest creature found in Scandinavian folklore.” So, kind of like a siren on a waterfall. I didn’t realize this at the time, but there are actually two Huldras on this waterfall. (Look in the upper right of the waterfall when I zoom out.) Or maybe there’s only one and Huldras just have the knack with space and time.

In the age of Trip Advisor and “1,000 waterfalls to see before you die” checklists, the unexpected is really the only thing that I appreciate. I wasn’t expecting this bit of theatrics on the waterfall, and I thought it was pretty well done. Bravo, Norway!

We had watched the news, assessed the situation, arranged shelter for the next few days, and acquired supplies. We were in no immediate perilous danger. With Hurricane Sandy on our doorstep, and all our ducks in a row, what else was there to do but go out and bear witness to nature’s fury?

I was in New York City for a friend’s wedding. It was a costume wedding, so I spent my first day there visiting some costume shops and doing some general sight-seeing. I didn’t notice anything that would suggest a looming disaster or that would prompt a “wait, what’s going on here?”

One thing I noticed: Trader Joe’s had longs lines out the door and around the block. (One line for the grocery store, and one line for the wine shop.) I realize now that people were stocking up. At the time, walking by all those people in line, I just thought Trader Joe’s is THAT popular.

An Understated Forecast: Hurricane Sandy rolled in on Sunday, October 28, 2013.

I don’t habitually monitor the weather, except occasionally to check the day’s high temperature.゠The first time I heard of Hurricane Sandy was probably in conversation. Perhaps it went something like this:
What do think of this hurricane? they may have said.
What hurricane? I may have said.

The wedding was on Saturday, Oct. 27. The hurricane would arrive late on Monday, Oct. 29. Still not worried, I took that interstitial Sunday to walk around and see some sights, visit some bookstores, relax in a coffee shop, etc. Now I was seeing warning signs. Particularly the subway closure notices. Also empty shelves where bottled water is normally stocked.

Hurricane? First I heard about it…

Monday was get-serious day. My friends and I moved from an apartment we were renting in the East Village. There were other serious problems with it, but the fact that it was one block from a mandatory evacuation zone was the deciding factor.

By dusk we were settled in at my friend’s apartment in Murray Hill. None of us were really worried. It was time to head out into the breach.

The video post here is a glorified compilation of clips from that foray. In it you can see people running errands, a guy training for the New York Marathon, and unusually high winds. What did Times Square look like? Pretty empty. Watch now!

Some friends and I visited Paris for a few days in February 2012. At the time, Europe was suffering its coldest winter in seventy-five years. It was snowing in Rome. On our last day in Paris, it was around 19°F and we ran from building to building with our hands in our pockets.

I like this moment when the elk walk in unison. It’s the kind of beautiful thing that, normally, happens and is over before you can point a camera. (Like Bigfoot sightings.) I just happened to be filming them before the moment. It’s not the best quality video, but whatever. The best camera is the one you have with you, right?

Technically it’s a dromedary. Whatever it is, this animal threw me to the ground with extreme prejudice.

Actually, I think it slipped on the angular top of the dune. When it began to go down, this image came to mind: my left left crushed under it’s weight. Fortunately, I had the presence of mind to roll off it when my left foot hit the ground.

I also had the presence of mind to press the record button, but only after the fall. I didn’t know my camera was recording during the…’event.’ I thought it was on pause. Powered on, but not recording. The video ends when I press the record button, thinking that I’m starting recording, when actually I’m stopping it.